26/10/2020
NEWS STORY
Christian Horner has admitted that his team should have followed Mercedes example and qualified on the medium tyres.
With Portimao being a new addition to the calendar even as the weekend developed there were still plenty of unknowns, a situation not helped by the fact that the Portuguese track kept throwing curve balls, witness Lewis Hamilton setting his pole-winning time on mediums.
In Q2 a day earlier, while the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers opted for the mediums, Red Bull went for the softs.
In the opening moments, especially as a light rain began to fall, it appeared Mercedes had made the wrong call. However as the race developed this proved not to be, and instead it was Red Bull that was left to rue its decision on Saturday afternoon.
"The tyres were a little bit of a black art today," Christian Horner told reporters at race end. "I mean, the soft tyre was difficult to get going, and the medium tyre looked to be the best of the range.
"I think with 20/20 hindsight, if we could have done qualifying again, we would probably obviously look to start on the mediums," he admitted.
"Max hung in there on the first lap, while Alex lost some ground, and then he was able to settle in and obviously, look after the tyres as best he could.
"Max got pretty decent range, and then got on the medium and was much happier on that tyre.
"But of course, Mercedes were significantly up the road by that point in time. So that's where we were.
"So P3 I think was the optimum for Max, but obviously a more difficult afternoon for Alex."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Portimao, here.